Retrospect La Capitale d'Été

For almost two weeks, the summer festival filled the World Heritage city of Baden-Baden with music and the scent of roses. The festival kicked off with the Friends' Summer Festival in the Gönneranlage. Yannick Nézet-Séguin presented one of ‘his’ orchestras in Baden-Baden - and vice versa: the Canadian Orchestre Métropolitain performed in the Festspielhaus for the first time. Visitors to the opening concert experienced a moment of happiness with the French pianist Alexandre Kantorow. The spark was also ignited on Sunday: Met star Lisette Oropesa enchanted the audience in an opera gala. The Canadian star conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin can already call five Grammy Awards his own, and in Baden-Baden he has now received a special award: on June 29, 2025, he became the godfather of the climbing rose “Maestro Yannick”. The audience can experience the star conductor up close and personal in the chamber music evening “Yannick and friends”, where he sits down at the piano himself. Das zweite Wochenende stand ganz im Zeichen Mozarts. Am Freitag erklangen unter der musikalischen Leitung von Yannick Nézet-Séguin und Solistinnen Ying Fang und Emily D’Angelo von der Metropolitan Opera New York sowie Michael Volle und Stanislas de Barbeyrac, dem RIAS Kammerchor Berlin und dem Chamber Orchestra of Europe Mozarts Sinfonie Nr. 40 und das ergreifende Requiem. Zum Festival-Finale mit Mozarts funkelnder „Jupitersinfonie“ und der dramatischen Wucht seiner c-Moll-Messe bescherte der Festivalkurator dem Publikum noch einen Abend voller Gänsehautmomente.